Moving Dangerous Electricity Meter

mrdtb

Hi,

I'm currently renovating a house and meter-plus came round the other day to swap over my ancient meter for a new one, part of a free rolling replacement. However, he said that the current situation of the meter was dangerous due to water ingress from a leaking porch roof (this is a kinda chronic problem, people keep nicking the flashings!) and that we should have the meter re-sited, and that they'd contact the distribution people and get them to come and do it.

Having heard nothing for a while I contacted meter-plus who seemed to know nothing about this but gave me a number to call. Now the distribution guys want to charge me upwards of £300 for moving the meter. Is this right, surely if my supply is dangerous they should do something about it? It's not that I just want it moving for my own sake - the 'lecky people told me I needed to move it. I'd be quite happy without a meter! (Wouldn't we all).

If anyone can help, or know where I can check this out, that'd be great.

Dtb

espresso

mrdtb wrote: »

surely if my supply is dangerous they should do something about it?

Surely if you have a chronic leak allowing water in, you should fix it as it is unsafe, and that is your responsibility!

:rolleyes:

nick74

I think in this situation I would just repair the roof with a non-lead flashing, and keep schtum about the meter.
I have known Meter Plus threaten to move meters before but never actually get around to doing it.

After all why should they move it at their expense when the problem is really with the maintenance of your building?

Terrylw1

Hi,

Meter plus cannot resite a meter, only the Distribution copany can as they have to move you physical supply/cut out first. Meter Plus will then come back out to resite the meter.

The engineer has told you it's dangerous (and they can refuse to touch it so you are lucky they swapped you over to a new meter but they may refuse to do more work from there, tends to depend on the attitude of the engineer really) so you can resolve the situation.

£300 is cheap, it must not need moving far. You may also be waiting a while for it to be done.

1 thing to consider, if it only needs to be moved 6 inches, it's free to do as no supply movement is required.

Some Agents charge for meter moves anyway, via a Supplier but most don't bother since it only takes 20mins anyway and the Supplier contracts them for simple jobs e.g. the recertification job they have just done for you.

Can it just be moved 6 inches? Can you resolve the leak situation?

Terrylw1

P.S. you shouldn't really contact Meter Plus since you are not classed as their customer, your Supplier is their customer so they can refuse to deal with you.

They should record this issue on their system and send a data flow detailing the problem to your Supplier. They then have to inform the Distributors Incident Centre about potential risks and they should sort it from there.

I think in your case though, they will assess it and say that it's the builfing that could be sorted to resolve it.


Also, if you want to go for the 6 inches meter resite, you have to go through your Supplier to arrange it.

mrdtb

Thanks terrylw1.

There are a number of issues with repairing vs resiting. I can fully appreciate the attitude that this is a problem with the building and therefore my problem. However, it's a listed building, my hands are somewhat tied (at least in the short term) to just replacing what is there at the moment - which would be lead. In fact at present the porch has only got a temp. roof as someone jsut knicked the york-stones of it, but that is another story. Also the porch isn't exactly a cracking construction in the was it meets the somewhat uneven wall of the house, so water ingress/damp is gonna be a problem to some extent whatever we do - short of removing the porch which we can't do as it's listed.

When I discussed it with the engineer he seemed to think that the safest thing to do was relocate the meter, and I kinda got the impression that this was a cost that someone else would pick up. Oh well.

Again thanks for your help.

Terrylw1

Ah, I see why it is a bigger problem than we probably thought when reading your post.

When they move your Supplier they could end up drilling into the property so you may need to check on that as well then.

Emengency work is normally done the same day or they at least cut (or bypass if needed) the supply and then the main distribution engineers come out to do the hard part which takes longer.

If it were dangerous and nothing to do with the property itself they would do it for you. However, it costs them moved so if they see it's something that you could pay for, they will make you pay.

They are liable in court for your safety and some Distributors have been in court for such reasons (as well as the media), e.g. NEDL a few years back.

However, if they can prove that the fault is something that has happened later and is the result of the building itself, they will feel safe in knowing they can prove they took adequate steps to inform you.

I think the engineer has misadvised you here. If 6 inches will do, your Supplier will happily arrange that for you (usually within 10 days) however if more than the meter needs moving, you need the Distributor and they do absolutely nothing for you for free.

The only thing you could try is to speak to one of the more senior managers within the Distribution network (is it NEDL/YEDL by any chance???they are more on the ball than most others over safety concerns) and see if you can persuade them.

It's not much in terms of a quote really so you never know.

The only other thing they may be able to do is resite it outside. This can be done if the main supply cutout is outside and all that needs doing is pulling the cable through the wall to the outside. I've seen that done before.

The MeterPlus guys have possible another option by extending the cabling and fitted kmf switches if required however thats rare and up to them as it tends to be free. I've seen that done before but if the cutout is inside I think it would still be seen as a problem.

It sounds like your meter is only a problem because it's inside and you have a leak. Could they not just fit a meter box as they do for outside supplies which would waterproof it? The reason I ask is, to quote you to resite a meter they have to send out a planning engineer to look at your property. In your first post you seem to have had the quote over the phone which makes me think they have just given you the likely price. So, there may be a way around it with a meter box. This would be less work so it may be a bit cheaper for you???

Good luck

Terrylw1

MrDTB,

Something I didn't think is maybe you could just waterproof the meter yourself if it's just a leak issue.

We have an electricity meter along the ceiling and we built a cupboard around it to make it blend in.

There is nothing stoping you do that in the short term if it makes the meter safe. I would ask Meter Plus though, not the Distributor (they want your money so may be economical with the truth!)

The rules are as long as you don't block the meter off so they cannot replace, test or read it, you are not breaking any laws. If you lock it though you need to give them access at all times. You can give them a key, leave one by the meter or next door but no further away.

Ours is just a sliding door one. If they state that it gets in the way for work they need to do, you will need to remove it. However, that may never happen and if it does, it's not much work.

Maybe thats a more cost effective solution for you until you can deal with the leak.

Hope that helps???